Alison Dooley

Pompy

Ella Boisonnault

Lady Pills is comprised of three members: Ella Boisonnault on guitar and vocals, Alison Dooley on bass, and Pompy on drums. Through the Berklee Popular Music Institute (BPMI) the band was given the opportunity to perform on Lollapalooza's Pepsi stage. This program educates students on different aspects of the music industry and allows them to get acclimated to on-site promotion, production, and tour management at festivals. This year, BPMI sent seven musicians to different festivals around the country and Lady Pills was chosen as one of them. Chicago-Woman was fortunate enough to chat one-on-one with the talented trio.

How did Lady Pills come to be?

Ella: "Lady Pills started as a solo project for me that I began doing acoustically. I then started playing with two of my friends who were both guys and it was fun but I really wanted to work with women. I met Alison because her boyfriend gave me a tattoo on the floor of the dorms and I found out she played bass. Pompy joined us about a month and a half ago. Our original drummer left recently. We are happy to be working with Pompy. It's been great."

Can you explain your connection with the Berklee Popular Music Institute?

Ella: "The Institute sent us to South by Southwest two springs ago and we were friends/acquaintances working together already. They told us about this program and asked if we were still going to be around the following year and it's all worked out. They have essentially sponsored us and sent us here. It's such an incredible opportunity that I have no idea how we would have gotten otherwise. We are extremely grateful to the Institute."

Who are your biggest mentors?

Alison: "Ourselves. We spent a lot of time with BPMI rehearsing to get us here. I feel like a lot of the work that we do for our band we have done all ourselves. We don't have a manager, we don't have an agent. We do everything. We spend a lot of time trying to discover the motive of our music and why we are doing it. We often think about what our music could mean to other people. I feel in a way we are each our own inner mentor. We are also taught that being together creates an environment for learning."

How do you feel being women artists apart of a male-dominated festival?

Pompy: "The industry in general is really male-dominated. It's frustrating and problematic. This can be connected to problems with teaching music education. I grew up being told that I couldn't play drums and that because I'm a woman I shouldn't even bother, which is really bizarre. It's really important to encourage other women to pick up sticks, pick up a guitar, or sing. Speak your truth, do your thing. Music should be an influence to everyone and not be some weird man's table. Also, women need to support other women. I think it's very classic of society to pin women against each other and we need to bring each other up. We need to foster a community where we are supporting one another."

Art usually addresses something conceptual, whether it is political, personal, or emotional. What does your music address?

Ella: "Everything. Human experience."

Alison: "I feel like the reason why we create music is to find ourselves and to find our true motive in life–to discover the truest form of self. Also, being able to encourage other people to do the same–taking the time to do your work and sitting with yourself in silence. The reason why we make music is because we want to create a space for people to feel comfy and be happy or feel however they want to feel. We want our music to heal and bring out the best in people."

Ella: "We like to create an environment for everything and release how we are feeling whatever way it needs to. I think that the emotional and political aspects, which we are very equally as passionate about, sort of happen naturally when healing is involved."

Alison: "It's hard to create art and not have it be politically and emotionally motivated. I feel like so much of our life is influenced by this on a daily basis."